The Potential for Fishery Development in the Caribbean and Adjacent Seas
This report begins with a brief geographical and political history of the area and then discusses at greater length the various kinds and characteristics of fish in the Caribbean. The best source of information about the fish resources of the Caribbean has been the extensive investigations of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), United Nations Development Program (UUNDP) Caribbean Fisher Development Project. This project consisted of exploratory fishing, marketing, and training investigations, from 1963 to 1971. Exploratory fishing operations by the FAO/UNDP project uncovered no substantial new fishery resources. They have, however, increased greatly the knowledge of the stocks of demersal fishes off the Guianas, and have shown that these could be caught profitably by boats operating as far distant as Puerto Rico. The project vessels also have caught fish to be used in the marketing programs which emphasized demonstrations and improved methods for the handling and distribution of fish, both for domestic markets and export. The most difficult fishery problems of the Caribbean which still remain to be solved are social and economic. Another major problem is the shortage of trained people not only to carry out the fishing and fish-marketing, but also administer fishery development programs and to perform the necessary research on conservation, fish processing, and related matters. The report concludes that the Caribbean people must be encouraged to commit their own time and money to the fisheries programs, and to develop their own skills and resources in this important field.